Digital Camera Magazine -julkaisun Spring 2020 -irtonumeron sisällysluettelo

These are strange times to be living through, and our thoughts are with any readers affected by the coronavirus. Without wanting to sound crass, though, there is a silver lining to the current restrictions. Think of all the photo projects you can now do at home, plus some routine maintenance to your cameras and kit. We have both angles covered this month: Photo Active (p14) features some creative ideas you can tackle indoors, while Camera College (p52) walks you through spring-cleaning your equipment. You’d be wise to do this before photographing the most colourful season of the year; our cover feature is bursting with creative ways to capture the wonders of spring, from page 40. Other highlights this month include an interview with the American great Stephen Shore (p136), and…

Donna’s route into food photography was an interesting one – she started blogging about using wholesome ingredients to feed families (eighty20nutrition.com), and needed photos to illustrate the recipes. But she soon realised that she preferred taking photographs to writing… Home-cooked food, home-made studio Although Donna was once told that she would need a studio in London to become a successful food photographer, she decided to set up at home. She turned the sitting room next to her kitchen into a studio, so she only has to carry her dishes a few feet. There are two sources of natural light: a pair of French doors that face northeast, and a large side window that faces southeast. “The curtains cast a yellow light,” notes Donna. “I can’t really change the environment because…

As you’ve probably already guessed, there’s a little camera trickery involved in creating this shot. Although it’s quite a simple and fun technique, it can lead to cool and complex-looking images. First off, we shot this image in a private car park. You should never take dangerous-looking items or equipment out into the general public; if you need to be in a public space, always speak to the local authorities first to gain permission. This technique will work with anything, however: a butter knife, a baseball bat or even just your own hand. The key is a fast shutter speed, and a friend with an accurate throw. By now you’ll have worked out that the melon is pre-sliced and our image is a slight step back in time. Not only…

Subscribe to Digital Camera and get 13 issues delivered direct to your door – plus a compact bag for carrying your camera gear… Find out more myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/dcm/veo1 or call 0344 848 2852 and quote ‘Veo 1’ *Terms and conditions: This offer is only available for new UK subscribers. Gift is subject to availability (MSRP £69.99). Please allow up to 60 days for the delivery of your gift. In the event of stocks being exhausted we reserve the right to replace with items of similar value. Prices and savings quoted are compared to buying full-priced print and premium subscriptions. You will receive 13 issues in a year. You can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Payment is non-refundable after the 14 day…

Dust inside the camera can be infuriating when it shows up on your pictures and videos – but before you venture inside the camera, you’ll need to clean its exterior. Accessories Don’t neglect the accessories when you’re cleaning the camera. If you’re using a bounce flashgun, such as Canon’s Speedlite EL-100 shown here, make sure you twist the flash head through its various positions. Lens mount Make sure that you clean the area around the lens mount thoroughly while a lens is attached, to avoid debris getting into the camera when you remove the lens. Fresh water If you’ve been shooting at the coast, wipe the body with a very slightly damp cloth to remove corrosive salt residues. It’s worth doing this all over – baseplate included – even if…

SHACKLETON ABOUT THE COMPETITION Hosted by expedition-grade apparel maker Shackleton (www.shackletonlondon.com), Capture the Extreme celebrates the cultures, wildlife and beauty of the planet at its coldest. Entries into its four categories (Adventures, Wildlife, Landscapes and People) were judged by a panel including Guy Berryman from the band Coldplay. Find out more at bit.ly/captureextreme20 OVERALL WINNER Olle Claeson Monacobreen Glacier “Taken on the north coast of the Svalbard archipelago, from the small-sea surveyor ship, M/S Stockholm. The ship’s shallow depth allows her to access places few other vessels can. We were moving away to avoid the approaching tsunami.” The competition winner receives a Leica D-Lux 7 compact camera. uk.leica-camera.com CATEGORY WINNER: LANDSCAPES Chris Pollard The Wanaka Tree, New Zealand “A lone cracked willow, marooned in a lake normally surrounded by an…

Jon is a professional photographer and writer. He also provides one-to-one and small-group tuition in both digital SLR and Photoshop image-editing skills. Nothing ruins a landscape or an architectural shot faster than a dull, bland sky that’s devoid of detail. One solution is to wait for the weather to improve, and another is to return on another day; but if neither of these options appeal, you can always indulge in a sky transplant! The broad variety of skies in the 50 supplied with this issue will work with all kinds of different images. By adjusting the contrast and brightness, you should be able to get a good match for most pictures. In this technique, I’ll outline a replacement method that will work successfully on bleached-out skies with a fairly clean…

James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials. Both colour and black-and-white photography are heavily dependent on the colours and lighting present in the scene. While many editing techniques these days focus on mimicking movie-style colour grading, which is a great approach, we’re going to focus on much more targeted effects that can take advantage of the plethora of colour we’ll soon begin to see in the landscape. With these four techniques, we’re going to look at ways of controlling the way specific parts of the scene look, based on colour, to change the overall look and feel of the image. Sometimes this will be with subtle effects, and at other times with more drastic changes…

Challenge 1 Tom Austin For this month’s Shootout, we thought it was time to shoot some action photography with an urban theme. On the morning of the shoot, though, conditions underfoot at our preferred location were wet and slippery, so we decided to head under cover. Skateboarding is challenging enough in the dry, so there was no point in taking unnecessary risks. Fortunately, Bristol boasts a couple of indoor skate parks operated by Campus Skateparks (www.campusskateparks.co.uk), so thanks to its Bishopsworth site (tel: 0117 964 1478) for fitting us in at short notice. And what a fantastic location. This former swimming pool was saved and has been reborn as a street-course skate park. For the first challenge, our model Marv had to skate up an 8ft quarter pipe, perform a…

What is an aspect ratio? The aspect ratio is the width and height of the photograph produced by your camera. This is naturally dictated by the width and height of the sensor inside your camera. All full-frame and cropped-sensor digital SLRs, and many mirrorless cameras, have an aspect ratio of 3:2. In other words, the dimension of the image area when the camera is held normally is one-and-a-half times as wide as it is high. However, all Micro Four Thirds cameras, and the majority of compact cameras, have an aspect ratio of 4:3. Does it matter what aspect ratio my camera is? Not really! If you are used to composing using a 4:3 ratio as opposed to 3:2 and vice versa, it makes no real difference. It’s simply a case…

The Photography Show 19-22 September 2020 NEW DATES! MAKE A NOTE IN YOUR DIARY MARCH SHOW TICKETS CAN BE USED It’s show time… again! The Photography Show was rescheduled due to concerns over coronavirus, and will now take place from 19-22 September While revealing the new dates of the imaging industry’s leading UK event, the organisers also confirmed that the show will also retain all its planned feature areas. These include the new Analogue Spotlight and Shutter Street, as well as the headline Super Stage, Photo Live, Drone Zone x Action Arena and Behind the Lens features. And all existing tickets for the original event in March will be transferred to the new dates. “We were incredibly disappointed to postpone this year’s event so close to it opening,” said Jonny…

£799/$799 www.nikon.co.uk Sensor: 16MP 1/2.3-inch CMOS Image processor: Expeed AF: Contrast detect ISO range: 100 to 6400 Viewfinder: 0.39-inch, 2,359k-dot OLED Metering modes: Matrix, centre-weighted, spot Video: 4K UHD up to 30fps, 1080p FullHD up to 60fps LCD: 3.2-inch vari-angle touchscreen,921k dots Lens: 83x optical zoom, 4.3-357mm (24-2,000mm equiv), f/2.8-6.5 Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, Bluetooth LE, USB Micro, Micro HDMI Size: 140 x 110 x 150 mm Weight: 1,005g (with battery and SD card) In 2018 Nikon broke the optical zoom record for a superzoom camera with its 125x Coolpix P1000. Now we’ve got the Nikon P950, which slots in just below the P1000 in the company’s superzoom hierarchy and replaces the P900. The P950 boasts an 83x optical zoom range, which would be equivalent to 24-2,000mm in full-frame camera…

Most macro prime lenses have a magnification ratio of 1.0x or 1:1 – but what does that actually mean? In a nutshell (or something of a similarly small size), when you move in close using the lens’s shortest available focus distance, objects are reproduced on the camera’s image sensor at life size. Something measuring just 36 x 24mm would completely fill the image sensor of a full-frame camera; it’s justaround 22 x 15mm or 17 x 13mm if you’re shooting with an APS-C or a Micro Four Thirds body respectively. Bear in mind how much larger an image is when you view it on screen or in print, compared with the size of the camera’s sensor, and the scope for enlargement is incredible. Tiny garden bugs can look like giant…

£799/$807 This range-topping Micro lens from Nikon is full-frame compatible, but bears certain similarities to its 85mm DX-format sibling. Both have the same number of optical elements, including one ED element, plus a three-stop stabiliser. The lenses also have very similar minimum working distances – 14.5cm and 15cm for the 85mm and 105mm lens respectively – and swift ring-type ultrasonic autofocus systems. One notable difference is that the 105mm lens includes Nano Crystal Coat, whereas the 85mm has a more conventional Super Integrated Coating. Performance The stabiliser lags behind those of the Canon and Tamron lenses for close-range performance, but outright sharpness is highly impressive. The Nikkor loses out to the Tamron in terms of colour fringing and distortion. Sharpness Levels of sharpness are excellent across the whole image frame.…

£439/$469 This full-frame compatible lens is Sigma’s first macro optic in its Global Vision line-up. It’s available in Canon EF, Sony E and Sigma mount options. A coreless DC motor enables quick and whisper-quiet autofocus, with excellent precision. Manual override and manual focusing are available via the electronically coupled manual-focus ring. Unlike most modern macro lenses, the Sigma doesn’t have internal focusing. Sigma says that this helps to avoid any compromise in macro image quality, but it means that the full macro working distance is just 6cm. That’s a lot closer than the 14cm of Sigma’s internally focusing 105mm macro lens. Performance Sharpness is stellar between f/2.8 and f/11, with little drop-off towards the edges of the frame, but a little less impressive at very narrow apertures. Sharpness Sharpness is…

For both full-frame and APS-C format Canon and Nikon cameras, the Tamron 90mm is a practically perfect macro lens. It delivers spectacular image quality and has a hybrid image stabiliser, along with a robust, weather-sealed construction. Image quality is fabulous, and it’s capable of resolving ultra-fine detail in macro shooting. Overall, it edges ahead of the range-topping, own-brand Canon and Nikon Macro lenses on test. For tighter budgets, the Sigma 105mm lens is a remarkably fine and feature-packed lens. For Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras, the smart money is on Sigma’s relatively new 70mm. It’s only half the price of the Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS, which we reviewed in our last macro lens Group Test, but easily matches the own-brand lens for image quality. In the Micro Four…

Garmin Virb 360 £599 www.garmin.com On paper, the Virb 360 has everything – from ruggedness and quality to smart features and data overlays – but it’s pretty bulky and pretty expensive too, which dents its appeal somewhat compared to newer cameras like the GoPro Max and smaller, simpler models like the Insta360 One X. The Virb 360 comes with clip-on cradles for both a regular tripod mount and a GoPro mount. You can operate it as a standalone camera via a small mono display and three multi-function buttons, or you can control it via the Virb app. The Virb’s stills show average sharpness, but with little colour fringing, and well-blended seams where the two hemispherical images are stitched. Its 5.7K capture should yield better results, but you need a computer…

Stephen Shore Documentary photographer More than 25 books of Shore’s photographs have been published, including Uncommon Places: The Complete Works, and American Surfaces. Donna Crous Food photographer A finalist in Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2017, Donna’s distinctive tableaux of wholesome, healthy food have graced many a recipe book. Clinton Lofthouse Advertising photographer Yorkshire-based Clinton is also a specialist in composite photography and creative artwork. Find out more about his background and work on page 30. Claire Gillo Creative photographer Photographer and journalist Claire is constantly coming up with new ideas and approaches, and shares some of her latest projects in Photo Active. Benedict Brain Creative photographer It’s always a good idea to have several photo projects on the go, says Benedict. An image from one of his…

Based in Yorkshire, I am an entertainment and advertising photographer, specialising in composite photography and creative artwork. I have worked with international clients and agencies, including Nike, Crypt TV and Athlon Outdoors. My love of art and storytelling was the reason I bought a camera, and things escalated quite quickly from there. I believe art can change lives, so I teach Photoshop workshops around the globe, to give people the skills to change theirs. Hand in hand Compositing was something I started to learn at the very beginning of my journey. I never wanted to just take a photo: I wanted to tell stories and create art. I bought Photoshop at the same time I bought my camera, so I learned both simultaneously. This allowed me to pick up composite…

1 KICK-START SPRING WITH SOME CROCUS FOCUS! Shoot a bright and vibrant photo of this humble and hardy seasonal icon Nothing says that spring has arrived like a colourful crocus opening up its petals to the sunshine. Crocuses come in various colours, but all share a beautiful shape that allows you to get really arty when you shoot them. To make the most of the delicate, semi-transparent petals, shoot them with a very limited depth of field, so they stand out perfectly from the background and look translucent. You can choose to shoot one crocus if you can find one away from the crowd, or concentrate on a small bunch. Either way, you need to act fast and catch them when they are first open, before the wind and rain…

Viewfinder Surprisingly dirty, but awkward to clean, although some models allow you to remove the rubber eyecup. Use a bulb blower to remove dust, followed by a cotton bud to reach tricky areas. Ports Check that all the rubber flaps and doors are securely seated to prevent water and dust ingress. Use a blower to remove particles that may have worked their way past the seals. Controls Use a blower or brush to clear debris from around the controls and seams. Don’t use canned air, as this may simply end up blasting dust further into crevices – and into the camera. Screen Attack ‘nose oil’ and fingermarks with a clean microfibre cloth (not the one you use for your lenses), and use a brush or blower to get rid of…

It’s hard not to miss dust on your camera’s imaging sensor: a blurry grey shadow or dot – or a number of them – positioned in the same place across every shot is a dead giveaway. It will be especially obvious when you’ve used a small aperture to take a picture, or when an image contains an expanse of single colour, such as blue sky. Often it will be so small that you wouldn’t notice it unless you’re scrutinising the image at 100% on your computer, but if you don’t take steps to get rid of it ‘at source’, you’ll have to remove it from every shot in photo-editing software. And that is tedious. Many cameras have an automatic sensor cleaning option that is effective at removing loose particles. If…

Most cameras are designed to be used as tools, rather than trinkets to keep on display. But although you shouldn’t have to baby your equipment, there are some simple steps you can take that will reduce the amount of maintenance and cleaning required. Naturally, keeping your kit in a camera bag between takes will afford it the most protection – as long as you clean that out occasionally, too… 1 Lens hood Although the hoods on wide-angle lenses are pretty useless for keeping rain and snow off of the front element, the deeper hoods on telephoto lenses work well. 2 Filter A clear filter can protect the front element from sand and salt spray when you shoot at the coast. Some lenses will not be dust- or water-resistant without a…

With over a decade as a writer and photographer behind him, James knows exactly which Photoshop and Lightroom tools and techniques matter most. Found within both Photoshop’s Camera Raw filter and in Lightroom’s Develop Module, the Adjustment Brush is one of the most powerful tools available for making local alterations. There’s a simple two-step process for using the brush: you paint over the part of the image you want to change, then use the tonal sliders in the brush settings to adjust how that area looks. You could, for example, paint in extra exposure to lift an area, add in negative saturation to tone down overly intense colours, or use selective Clarity to boost the texture in specific parts of the image. What’s more, you can use a combination of…

Every month two of our resident Photoshop experts are challenged to interpret one raw file in any way they see fit. Over the following pages, they reveal their rationale and show how you can achieve their look… The original raw by Alistair Campbell Capturing an iconic Manhattan street scene, Alistair shot this on a Fujifilm X-T2 with a Samyang 12mm lens. The exposure was 1/250 sec at f/2, ISO 1,000. The high ISO means plenty of detail is captured in this handheld shot, but the illuminated billboards dominate. James Abbott James specialises in landscape and portrait images, and is an advanced Photoshop user. Raw warrior 1 wants to create… A relit scene to bring out the crowd Sean McCormack Photographer Sean McCormack is also the author of The Indispensable Guide…

Believe it or not, some photographers pay good money to have a simple watermark logo created for them, so they can stamp their pictures and gain a degree of protection against copyright theft when posting them online. There’s nothing wrong with doing this, and it’s actually a good idea to identify your work in some way on the internet. But if you’re a Photoshop user, it’ll only take you a few minutes to make your own custom logo. Even better, you can make your signature logo any size and any colour you want, and apply it to any picture in one click. Aside from the benefit of learning a few new software tricks, you’ll save enough cash to buy a decent-sized memory card, too! Grab a sheet of white paper,…

This image of the broad leaves of a tropical plant was shot in a botanical garden. The whole image has been overexposed, but because I shot a raw file, it’s possible to bring the important detail back. Working in Camera Raw, I can start by taking the Highlights and Exposure sliders in the Basics Panel back, until the tones fall within the Histogram. Approximately-40 Exposure and -20 Highlights will do it. I can also nudge the Black slider back to increase the contrast. 1. What I really want is for the texture and detail in the leaves to come out 2. I can get this by pushing the Texture and Clarity Sliders to the right. Let’s take them both to +30. That’s really made a difference in the fine detail…

BenQ X-Rite i1 Display Studio Photographers working on several devices can colour-calibrate them easily and inexpensively with i1Display Studio. The i1 colorimeter and i1Studio software does all the work, so you can focus on photography. xrite.com; £139/$179 Wex Milton Keynes opens this month The new Wex store opens on 4 April, with a grand opening weekend on 24-25 April. Homer Sykes will cut the tape; the renowned photographer will also lead a local photo walk (applications required before event). wexphotovideo.com Portable Pixmas for the mobile-minded Canon’s new portable printer is available with or without a battery. Both versions of the TR150 use a hybrid ink system, and there’s a Save Black Ink mode. canon.com; From £220/€260 New Epson printer for pro-quality images Although targeted at the pro market, keen amateur…

£1,599/$1,799 www.olympus.co.uk The Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III is a distillation of the company’s greatest technology, and the apex of its professional camera aspirations. The smallest and lightest pro system in the world, it offers an unparalleled 7.5 stops of image stabilisation (6.5 as a base), unmatched 60fps shooting bursts (18 with AF/AE), and advanced features that simply aren’t possible on any if its rivals. However, when its rivals include the just-launched Canon EOS-1D X Mark III and the brand-new Sony Alpha 9 II, does the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III have what it takes to topple the best professional cameras on the market? And why has Olympus given us a pro body when it only released the Olympus OM-D E-M1X just over a year ago? If you’re feeling a…

£1,049/$1,099 www.sigma-imaging-uk.com Mount: L-Mount, Sony E Full-frame: Yes Autofocus: Yes Lens construction: 19 elements in 15 groups Angle of view: 84-34 degrees Diaphragm blades: 11 Minimum aperture: f/22 Minimum focusing distance: 0.18-0.38cm Maximum magnification ratio: 0.34-0.22x Filter size: 82mm Dimensions: 88 x 125mm Weight: 835g Sigma put one over on Canon and Nikon with its 24-70mm f/2.8 Art lens, designing a pro-grade zoom that was as good (and arguably better) as own-brand optics at a much more affordable pri ce. The company has now launched a 24-70mm f/2.8 Art lens for mirrorless full-frame Sony cameras, as well as for L-mount cameras made by Panasonic, Leica and Sigma. But it’s not just a tweak of the SLR-fit lens: this lens has been completely redesigned. Sigma’s DSLR and mirrorless 24-70mm Art lenses…

£899/$750 Although Canon’s hybrid stabiliser has been adopted by the EF-M 18mm and EF-S 35mm Macro lenses, this full-frame camera compatible 100mm L-series macro was the first to feature it. With enhanced performance for close-up shooting, the stabiliser counteracts x-y shift (movement in the horizontal and vertical planes) as well as the more usual angular vibrations. Even so, its effectiveness shrinks from four to two stops at shorter focus distances; it’s no real substitute for a tripod in full 1.0x macro shooting. Performance Ideal for macro shooting, sharpness is excellent at medium to narrow apertures, and it remains highly impressive even when shooting wide-open at f/2.8. Colour fringing is very minimal, but barrel distortion can be slightly noticeable. Sharpness There’s excellent sharpness at narrow apertures, often preferred for macro shooting.…

£339/$399 The Micro Four Thirds system is sometimes criticised for its relatively small image sensor. However, the crop factor not only boosts telephoto reach but gives you double the effective magnification, compared with a full-frame camera. This macro lens effectively gives you an 2.0x maximum magnification. Although relatively compact and light, the lens is beautifully engineered and features weather-seals. Although the comparatively short 60mm focal length knocks about 10cm off the minimum focus distance, the macro working distance from the front of the lens to the subject only shrinks from about 14cm to 10cm, compared with most 90-105mm macro optics. Performance Autofocus is both quick and virtually silent in operation. Image quality is very good in all respects. Sharpness The Olympus resolves more close-up detail than our medium-range tests suggest.…

£359/$469 Launched in 2011, this optically stabilised FX-format macro lens predates Sigma’s ‘Global Vision’ Art, Sports and Contemporary line-up by a year. Unlike the larger 150mm OS macro that was launched a few months earlier, it’s still going strong, and serves up a tempting feast of features at a competitive price. With fast ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and a fully internal focusing arrangement, the lens works really well as a fast telephoto prime. It’s also good for shooting sports and wildlife, with a four-stop stabiliser that has switchable static and panning modes. Performance Corner-sharpness is merely mediocre at wide apertures, but that’s no real problem in macro photography, where you’ll generally use narrow apertures to gain even a little depth of field. The lens delivers superb image quality. Sharpness Sharpness is…

Billingham 72 Camera Bag £109/$140 www.billingham.co.uk Quality and style are two words that spring to mind with Billingham. Established in 1973, the company has finally entered the holster arena with its new 72 Camera Bag. It’s beautifully crafted from choices of three-layer waterproof canvas or synthetic FibreNyte with top-grain leather and brass details, including the studs, rivets and strap loops. The neck strap is removable and there’s a belt loop at the rear, but no top carrying handle. Internal dimensions are 110 x 90 x 140mm; the bag is quite weighty for its size, at 460g. As with Billingham’s larger camera bags, a quick-release brass ‘ClogBall’ and leather fastening strap enables one-handed opening and closing of the cover flap. This reveals the main compartment with an adjustable and removable divider,…

In 1972, Stephen Shore began a photographic road trip that lasted for little more than a year in total, but provided the material for his iconic American Surfaces project, which examined everyday American culture. Armed only with a 35mm Rollei camera, he created a visual diary of the places he’d been, the meals he’d eaten, the beds he’d slept in, and the people he’d met along the way. Fast-forward 48 years from the start of Shore’s trip, and a newly updated version of his book American Surfaces has been published. It now includes an essay by writer and photographer Teju Cole, plus 40 images that didn’t appear in the original edition. We spoke to Stephen Shore to get under the skin of how he approached this project, and to discover…

Food photographer Donna started off taking photographs of the dishes featured on her Eighty 20 Nutrition blog. She came third in the Food Blogger category of Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2017. www.donnacrous.com Photographing food is becoming more and more popular. Whether it’s snapped on a phone or captured by a camera, it’s a fun entrée to mastering composition and lighting techniques – two essential ingredients of still-life photography. And, as shown in our February issue, while a keen enthusiast can get great results with a basic camera setup, it’s genuinely fascinating to see how a professional food photographer approaches a shoot. Just how much work needs to go into turning an attractive-looking dish into a fine-art photograph? Thanks to spending a day with Donna Crous, we’re about…

1 “Be aware of your lighting: a good image has a balance of shadows, midtones and highlights.” 2 “When styling a scene, take the direction of shadows into account when balancing the composition. Always use side or back lighting, and don’t have the light source in the same direction as the camera as the food will look flat and unappetising. And never use in-built flash.” 3 “Light is not static – it’s always moving and changing. Be constantly aware of how the light is changing and tweak it: either add more filler light, bounce cards or diffusers.” 4 “Learn to control depth of field. Make sure you understand the depth of field characteristics of a given lens.” 5 “Using a tripod means you won’t have to worry about shutter speed and ISO…

Lens flares can ruin your images, especially when they cover up a big part of the shot. However, not all lens flare is bad: if you apply it with some control, it can add a new dynamic to your images. You can even buy in pre-made lens flares to assist your edits, with apps such as Lens Distortions or software like LensFlare Studio. Lens flare is typically caused by a bright light source. The effect can vary depending on the location of the light source in the frame. If the light source is very strong (such as the sun), its light rays can reach the front of the lens and cause lens flare, even if the light source itself is not included in the image. For this shot, I placed…

Have you ever wanted to build your own lens? For this project, I’m going to show you how to create a pinhole lens, by modifying a spare body cap for your DSLR or mirrorless camera using some household items like a small piece of tinfoil, tape, a drill and a pin. The images you’ll be able to take with your custom lens will be reminiscent of vintage lenses, with a slightly out-of-focus quality to them – they look great in mono, or you could go the other way with them and super-saturate them with colour. They’re great to experiment with for landscapes and portraits – and because it’s such a light and portable ‘lens’, you have no excuse not to take it with you wherever you go! This is a…

NEW SERIES Instagram Inspiration Part 1 of 6 Instagram is one of the best social networks for photographers, because it’s visual. You’ve probably already got the skill and know how to take wonderful photos, but what Instagram does is let you share them with the people who matter. Clients, potential clients, or just people who appreciate great images… they’re all on Instagram, so why aren’t you? You may be sceptical about using new platforms – or about social networking altogether – but photographs and videos are the glue and currency of pretty much all social networks. Without images, they simply wouldn’t work. Billions of people spending hours looking at images every day, so why aren’t your images a part of that conversation? More than one billion people use Instagram every…

Photographer Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 at 29mm Exposure: 1/400 sec at f/7.1, ISO 100 www.benedictbrain.com Typically I have one or more projects on the go. Some are short-form and are completed in an afternoon, while others rumble on in the background for years. Sometimes they can be deep and meaningful, and at other times they can be more trivial and superficial – or both at the same time. One theme that has dominated my personal practice in the last couple of years has been a visual enquiry into the way humans interact with the environment. Looking back, I realise that this broad theme has been bubbling away in the background for decades. Perhaps I’m just getting to the point where I can articulate my ideas more clearly…

It doesn’t take a lot of time or expensive kit to keep your lenses looking pristine. Follow the steps outlined here, and you’ll get great results. Make sure you store your clean lenses in a dry environment to prevent mold and fungi eating into the glass. If this forms on the internal elements, consider paying for a professional service, if the lens is worth it. 1 Bulb blower The less often you touch the front (or rear) element of a lens, the less chance there is of damaging the coating – although the front elements of high-end lenses typically have a relatively robust finish that is designed to make cleaning easier. A bulb blower is the first tool you should reach for when cleaning the optics, and it may be…

Tripods might be tough old things, but they still need a little love. Nuts and bolts can come loose, so check them regularly, and make sure you carry the necessary tools to make adjustments if you’re going to be away from home. If the legs have been wedged in sand and mud, fully extend them, wipe them down with clean fresh water and allow them to dry. Be prepared to disassemble the legs and clean and regrease the joints if sand has got into the threads. True grit To prevent sand caking the feet, wrap plastic bags around the ends before hitting the beach.…

Photographer Title: ‘Building’ Location: Medellín, Colombia Camera: Canon EOS 60D Lens: Canon EF-S 18-135mm Exposure: 1/500sec at f/8, ISO125 The World Photography Organisation recently revealed the National Awards winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2020. The National Awards programme is an initiative that supports local photographic communities from around the world. All entries to the SWPA Open competition are automatically considered for a National Award. Each National Award winner therefore gets the opportunity to showcase their work to a global audience through the SWPA 2020 exhibition. Over 345,000 images were submitted to the 2020 competition – the highest number of entries yet – with 190,000 entering the Open competition. The winner of Colombia’s National Award is Liliana Ochoa, for ‘Building’. Her photo captures construction workers assembling an iron structure…

Sean McCormack is a photographer and writer, based in Galway on the west coast of Ireland. He’s the author of The Indispensable Guide to Lightroom CC. There’s just something about foggy mornings. They bring an unreal, ethereal feel to the world; no wonder fog is a key element in thrillers and mystery movies. With the world pushed back, fog gives a timeless feel, especially combined with water. And so it was this particular morning. With the winter storms we’ve had of late, it’s getting rarer to get mornings calm enough for fog. I dropped my original plans and went out, camera in hand, to capture this most otherworldly weather. To process such photos, I really think that timelessness is the key; and for that, a black-and-white conversion is in order.…

Reader 1 Tom Austin Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Location: Oxfordshire Canon owner Tom shoots environmental and commercial portraiture, as well as architecture and construction images. He studied photography at the Vancouver Institute of Media Arts; you can view a selection of documentary images taken in Canada on his website. Mountain biking is another interest of Tom’s, so it’s not unsurprising that he joined us to shoot a moving subject – albeit on four wheels this time. Tom uses a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 and Sigma 35mm f/1.4 with his EOS 5D Mk IV. www.tomaustinphoto.com Reader 2 Chels Underhill Camera: Canon EOS 80D Location: Devon Chels is another fully paid-up member of the Canon-carrying club, and is no stranger to Shootout, either: her work graced the pages of Digital…

Roving photographer Quintin is on a multi-year photo walk, circumnavigating the whole of the UK coast. www.theperimeter.uk Leaving Scotland behind, I feel like I’m walking away from a heart-wrenching breakup. If I turn around, I may have second thoughts. The practicalities of my journey are different, too: after a couple of years enjoying the freedom of Scottish land access, it’s back to the charade of English stealth-camping and following designated footpaths. Immediately there are more signs and barbed wire. Yet the wonder of Holy Island is only one day’s walk from the border, and I’m soon seduced by the charms of Northumbria. Under a full moon, I make an unforgettable low-tide causeway crossing via the Pilgrim’s Way, over the estuary to Holy Island. I stop halfway with my heart racing…

Remembering Cheetahs will be the fifth book in the charity book series started? by wildlife photographer Margot Raggett in 2016. She was prompted to take action after seeing a poached elephant in Kenya, and started asking fellow wildlife photographers if they? would contribute to a fundraising book. Remembering Elephants and its successors – Remembering Rhinos, Remembering Great Apes and Remembering Lions – have between them raised more than £615,000 for 38 conservation projects across 21 countries. For 2020, Margot has announced that the next book in the series will be Remembering Cheetahs. The book will be published on Monday 12 October 2020, and will feature stunning images donated by many of the world’s leading wildlife photographers, including Marsel van Oosten, Jonathan and Angela Scott, Frans Lanting, Greg du Toit, and…

£599/$649 www.olympus.co.uk Mount: Micro Four Thirds Lens construction: 12 elements in 9 groups Angle of view: 84° (wide) /27° (telephoto) Diaphragm blades: 7 Minimum aperture: f/22 Minimum focusing distance: 0.12m (wide)/0.23m (telephoto) Maximum magnification ratio: 0.25x Filter size: 58mm Dimensions (D x L): 63 x 70mm Weight: 254g The Olympus M.Zuiko 12-45mm f/4 Pro holds an impressive distinction: it is the world’s smallest and lightest fixed-aperture standard zoom lens. (In 35mm-equivalent terms, this would be a 24-90mm lens). To put that into perspective, it weighs about the same as a large apple. It’s a capable macro shooter, able to focus as close as 12cm at the widest end and 23cm at the telephoto, and offering 0.25x maximum magnification across the zoom range. Like many standard zooms, the 12-45mm f/4 Pro…

£499/$595 Sigma’s 150mm macro lens was a good performer, but it has been discontinued, clearing the stage for this Irix full-frame compatible newcomer. The build quality is impeccable, based on high-quality optical elements and a weather-sealed magnesium alloy barrel. The 1.0x macro working distance is longer than with any other lens on test, at 17.5cm. Like the Samyang macro lens, the Irix is manual-focus, but includes all the necessary electronics for camera driven aperture control and viewfinder focus indicator lamps in all three fits: Canon EF, Nikon F and Pentax K. Performance The long-travel focus ring operates smoothly and has a locking mechanism. However, ultra-fine adjustments for macro shooting are more fiddly than with the Samyang lens. Image quality is excellent. Sharpness Unusually, sharpness across the frame barely drops off…

£389/$499 Many of us prefer to focus manually for macro shooting. Depth of field tends to be so tiny that you often need to be very selective. This Samyang lens isn’t just a manual focus optic, but generally lacks any electronics at all in its plethora of mount options. The only exception is the Nikon-fit version, which enables aperture adjustment from the camera body rather than via the lens’s onboard aperture ring. This means that on an SLR (apart from Nikon), the viewfinder image becomes dark when using the narrow apertures that are typically required in macro shooting. However, the lens works a treat in Live View mode, or with mirrorless cameras. Performance The focus ring is ideal for making precise adjustments. Image quality is very good as well. Sharpness…

£649/$649 Tamron’s highly popular line of 90mm macro lenses stretches all the way back to 1979. Updates in the latest edition include a revised optical layout that features two top-grade XLD (eXtra Low Dispersion) elements. Conventional and nano-structure coatings team up to keep ghosting and flare to a minimum. Another notable upgrade is that Tamron has also added a ‘hybrid’ optical stabiliser. As with the Canon lens on test, this corrects for x-y shift as well as the more usual angular vibration. Again, performance drops from four to about two stops at fairly close range, and it’s of little value in full macro shooting. Performance Lab scores for sharpness at medium ranges are good, but the Tamron proved absolutely excellent at really short focus settings. Sharpness Close-range sharpness is even…